Sheet conveyer



May 21, 1940.

H. T. BACKHOUSE SHEET CONVEYER Filed Jan. 8, 1940 INVENTOR I 195904 :1 fomvsm'afincx/ aw' B Y Wf W M ATTORNEY Patented May 21, 1940 UNITED STATES SHEET Headley Townsend Backho'use, London, England Application January 8, 1940,.sm1 No. 312,913 Great Britain January 3, 1939 5 Claims. (Cl. 271-51) The invention in improvements in or relating to conveyers for sheets of paper or like. sheet material and has reference to conveyers of .thel'gipd used for cbnveying sheets of paper, card or other sheet material from a separator arranged tinting or other sheet manipulating machine. e invention is concerned particularly with conveyergin which the sheets are conveyed asa con- 1.- m stream of partly overlapping sheets.

. level from a pile the top oi which is at a difierent Q level, "for example when the feed board is at a low level it is an advantage .to use a pile of sheets or considerable height in order to lessen the loss voi time'caused by'stoppages for renewing the pile. It is an object o! the present invention to a provide a conveyer which may be used in such a case for conveying separated sheets from a pile -,of substantial heightto a sheet manipulating machine at a. low level, which occupies little floor space and which provides where necessary, positive control of the sheets being conveyed.

The invention consists in a conveyer" .for .the above purpose characterized in'that while the top end portion of the conveyer is horizontal or has only such a slope that the sheets may be transby ineans for positively maintaining the sheets in contact with the part of greater slope.

The bottom end portion of the conveyer may be horizontal or it may have onlysuch a slope m that the sheets may be controlled and. registered in the normal way and in one form oi the invention this portion has a, length at least equal to.

or the sheets-to'be conveyed, considered in the conveying direction. lnthiscasealso-the change of slope is so arranged'as to avoid undue ghending of the sheets. The top end portion also may have a length at least equal to that of the sheewa In one preferred iorm oi the invention; which m is ill trated by waysof example in the accompanying diagrammatic drawin the conveying 1 surface ofthe top end I of the conveyer, of the intermediate portion 2. of greater slope'of the, parts 3 and [of the conveyer where the slope 5, changes and of a portion I or the bottom end of All i to separate individual sheets from a pile, to a terred to it from-the pile without undue bending the conveyer, isconstituted by a series oi axially parallel rollers 6 extending across the conveyor and supported-at each end in frame'mem'bers I (only one .of these members being shown in the drawing). The rollers at the. part 3 ofi the con- *5 veyer are arranged around an arc of a circle of suitable radius to provide'a convex surface around which the sheets may pass without undue bend ing and the rollers-at the part i of the conveyer are arranged around a.- similar arc to provide a 10 concave surface. Preferably, as in the form illustrated, the convex-and concave portions constitute a major part of the sheet path from one level to theother. The sheet path as a whole takesthe cross-sectional form of an ogee curve, whereinls there may or-may notbe a straight portion between-the convex and concave portions. Some, and preferably all, of the rollers are connected together by gearing 8 in such' a manner that, when the conveyer is in operation, the rollers turn in the same direction and at the samespeed 1 to convey the sheets. A series of idler rollers orwheels 9 which may have resilient treads, are provided-for the purpose of pressing the-sheets In as they travel down the conveyer from the pile I I into contac't with the conveying rollers 8 under, for example, spring pressure in such manner that. the sheets being conveyed are nipped .between the idler rollers or wheelsand the conveying rollers, and are constrained to follow them path of the conveying surface. The object of this arrangement is-to insure that the sheets are maintained at a constant spacing relative to one 1 another even over the portion of the conveyer of greater slope. Theremainder of the bottom end of the conveyer is constituted by tapes l2 traveling over a layboard13 in the usual manner.

A conveyer as described above may be used,

for example, combination with a sheet separator of the. kind described-in my Patent No. 2,108,702-operating at or near the rear edge of the pile. J.

Having thus described my invention, I- claim:

1. In a sheet teeding'machine/ia conveyer for taking sheets'from a high pile and conveying them to a feed board at a substantially lower level, said conveyer comprising sheet supporting and conveying elements presenting a sheet pathsubstantiallyin the term of an ogee curve, one end of said curve -being convex and being sub- .stantially tangent to the upper surface oi the pile and the other end of the curve being concave and being substantially tangent to the teed board, the intermediate portion'of the curvebeing. ap-

e and to;- holding'the sheets against said supporting and conveying elements.

2. In a sheet feeding machine. a conveyer for taking sheets from a high pile and conveying 5 them to a ieedboard at a substantially lower level, said conveyer comprising sheet supporting and conveying elements arranged exclusively on one side of the sheet path, said elements presenting a sheet path substantially in the form of an 10 one curve, one end of. the curve being convex and being substantially tangent tothe upper surface of the pile and the other end of the curve being concave and being substantially tangent to the feed board, the intermediate portion-or 5 the curve being approximately vertical, and means for holding the sheets against said supporting and conveying elements.

3. In a sheet feeding machine, a conveyer for taking sheets from a high pile and conveying go them to a feed board at a substantially lower level, said 'conveyer comprising a series of parallel driven rollers arranged exclusively on one side of a sheet path of ogee form, one end of the curve being convex and being substantially tang5 gent to the upper surface of the pile and the other end of the curve being concave and being substantially tangent to the feed board, the intermediate portion of the curve being approximately vertical, and em. for main: the mm in tractive relation with certain of said rollers. 4. In a sheet feeding machine, a conveyer for taking sheets from a pile at a relatively high level and carrying themdownto afeedboard at I a lower level, said conveyer comprising sheet supporting'and conveying elements arranged to present a sheet -path extending from said pile level to said lower level and including an upper convex curve and a lower concave curve. said 10 curves constituting a major portion of said path with an intermediate minor portion extending approximately vertical, and means for holding the sheets against said supporting and conveying elements. ll

5. In a machine for stream feeding sheets, a feed board, a conveyer for moving the stream fed sheets from a relatively high level down to the level of said feed board through a path comprising convex and concave curves, a series of par- I allel driven mllers arranged beneath said path, said rollers being spaced closely at each of said curves forthe support and guidance of the sheets. the intermediate portion of the sheet path being approximately vertical, and bearing rollers on'the as opposite side of the path for pressing the stream of sheets against said driven rollers;

' HEADLEY TOWNSEND BACKHOUSE. 

